A Ruler and A Strange Science Teacher
by laveniis
Summary: Mr Braginsky, the science teacher, borrows a ruler from the math teacher's classroom just to use it in his ploy to ask him out later.


**I realised I hadn't uploaded anything in a long time so I felt like I should make up for it. Here, have a oneshot AU where Yao is a math teacher and Ivan is a science teacher... sorry for any mistakes**

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"The next step is to multiply the-…" Yao sighed as he was interrupted by a knock at the door of a math classroom. He sighed, pushed up his glasses and opened the door. Just for the sake of being polite, he forced himself not to roll his eyes at the visitor.

The visitor was a tall, large man with light blond hair that was never parted the same way. In fact, Yao wasn't even sure if there was a specific way that he liked to part his hair. Not that he cared. This man was Ivan Braginsky, a science teacher at the high school. Yao thought he was eccentric, to put it simply. Many of his students would often comment on how apparently he was scary and they didn't want to go their class because of it. He didn't understand, because the times he had come into contact with him, he seemed perfectly friendly. Maybe he was mean in class and nice out of class.

"Do you need something, Mr Braginsky? I'm sure you're not just going for a walk and somehow ended up at my class." Yao puffed, crossing his arms and staring at Ivan. Ivan smiled, clapping his hands together just once, in a childish manner.

"I came here to ask if I could borrow a ruler." he replied, smiling at him. Yao looked at him curiously.

"Do you not have rulers in the science block?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Ivan laughed softly.

"Yes, but we're one ruler short." Ivan hummed, and leant against the doorway. Yao sighed and turned his back, walking over to his desk and picking up a large ruler. He walked back over and pushed the ruler into the fellow teacher's large hands.

"Here is a ruler, now; don't you have a class to teach? I'm sure the kids are causing havoc without you there to keep them in check." Yao huffed, going to shut the door on him. Ivan smiled and held the door open a moment longer.

"Thank you, Yao! Oh, and don't worry about my students! If they step out of line I will put them in their place!" he cooed, giving Yao a small smile and waving boyishly. Yao couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes this time, forcing the door shut on him. Ivan lingered a moment longer outside the door, then turned and disappeared back to the science block. Yao sighed, and returned to teaching his students, who had been whispering and laughing softly about the interaction between the two teachers.

The lesson passed by smoothly, Yao getting the equation he was trying to teach his students across. Now, he had a lesson-less free block, and returned to his office. During this school block, he was to be teacher support for when bad students acted up. Yao was a small man, who was generally pretty nice and cheerful but, he could be strict and pretty scary when he needed to be. He sat at his desk scribbling little drawings on a scrap piece of paper he just had in his office. Of course, he had paperwork he should be doing, but he was going to put that off for as long as he could.

Lunch time soon came around, and Yao was staring out the window his office, watching students muck about. He was about to get up and go to the staffroom to get his lunch, when there was a knock at his door. He murmured a 'come in' and the door was pushed open, and Ivan surprisingly stepped in. Yao looked at him, and his eyes travelled down to Ivan's hand, which was holding the ruler that he had borrowed from before.

"Why didn't you just return it to the classroom?" Yao asked, sighing and putting his pen down. Ivan shrugged, placing the ruler against Yao's desk.

"I wanted to talk to you, so I came to your office." Ivan cooed, leaning against the doorway. Yao rolled his eyes.

"And what on earth do you want to talk to me about?" he grunted, leaning back in his chair. "Shouldn't you be off eating lunch?" he asked, looking at him, as if he were annoyed. Ivan just smiled faintly at him, shuffling into the office and shutting the door behind him. Ivan then sat down on a chair in the office meant for students.

"I just wanted to talk, Yao! Why do you always sound so grumpy when I talk to you?" Ivan whined, sitting his hands in his lap. Yao turned around in his chair to face him.

"It's probably because the times you do come talk to me, you interrupt my teaching." he sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Did you really just come here to talk to me?" Ivan nodded his head. Yao narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Ivan puffed out his cheeks and crossed his arms, bothered by Yao's suspicion of him. "Talk, then."

"O-Oh, I thought you were going to lecture me!" he laughed, scratching his cheek. "I just want to talk, and maybe... become friends?" Ivan murmured, smiling at him kindly. Yao raised his eyebrows.

"Friends?" he repeated. Ivan nodded his head awkwardly.

"Yes! Okay so, what's your favourite thing to eat?" Ivan asked instantly, laughing softly.

"I like pretty much any Chinese cuisine. Especially my own cooking! Those Chinese food shops never cook anything right! Now that I think about it... maybe I should quit and become a chef to show them all how to actually cook..." Yao began muttering to himself about the possibility of quitting teaching.

"Wait, what? No, don't quit! Think about all those poor children that will fail math without you!" Ivan exclaimed, putting his hands on either of his cheeks in fright. Yao tapped his chin, looking around as if in thought.

"Ah, alas you are right! Did you know, Ivan? I think I'm by far the finest mathematics teacher in this school," he bragged, leaning forward and smirking a little. Leaning forward caused his glasses to slip forward, so he awkwardly pushed them back into place. Ivan laughed.

Ivan was going to ask more questions; leading up to a far more important question, but Yao had pretty much told him everything he needed to know. So, he decided to just ask him more simplistic questions, occasionally being asked about his preference in turn.

Ivan looked at the clock in Yao's office and realised lunch would be over soon, and he hadn't eaten his lunch yet.

"Can I ask you one more thing before I got get lunch?" Ivan queried, fiddling with his hands shyly.

"Yeah, go ahead." Yao hummed, looking at him curiously.

"I need you to solve an equation for me," he began, shifting awkwardly in his chair. He could do it! He had been rehearsing this line all morning!

"Oh? Is it science related?" Yao asked, raising his eyebrows, awaiting Ivan's math question.

"Um, I guess. Chemistry related, maybe..." Ivan took in a deep breath and tried to maintain eye contact with Yao as he went to speak. "Yao, do you know the answer to: you plus me?" he went red and looked down in embarrassment. Yao was caught off guard to say the least. Was Ivan trying to flirt with him? Maybe that's why he was asking about his favourite food, so he could ask him out.

"I believe the answer is: not going to happen, Mr Braginsky,"

"Oh, sorry-"

"You didn't let me finish, stupid." Yao rolled his eyes. "Not going to happen unless you go get my lunch for me, so I don't have to do it myself. Maybe then, I'll consider going on a date with you. Maybe." he huffed, leaning back in his chair again and looking away somewhat immaturely. Ivan sat there in confusion, processing Yao's words very slowly. Ivan suddenly jumped to his feet and moved to stand beside the door.

"Is your lunch-?" he began but Yao put his hand up, stopping him.

"It's in the fridge, its salad and it has small pieces of fish in it. I wrote my name on it. If by chance it's not in the fridge, Mr Jones probably took it. Get it back for me." Yao puffed, turning his chair away so he was now looking at the papers he had to get done sometime. Ivan nodded, scurrying away to the staffroom.

After a few minutes, there was a knock at Yao's door, and Ivan let himself in once again. Yao smiled at the sight of his lunch in Ivan's hands. He held out his own hands, gesturing for Ivan to give it to him. He was pretty hungry. Ivan complied, placing the salad in the smaller man's hands. Ivan sat down in the chair he had been sitting in before, digging into his own lunch. It was just a simple sandwich.

"Did you find my lunch easily?" Yao asked, savouring the taste of the fish amongst the salad. Ivan nodded simply.

"When I entered, I saw Alfred trying to sneak off with it. I hit him gently on the shoulder and took it from him." Ivan laughed, smiling childishly. Yao nodded cautiously.

"You didn't hurt him, right?" he asked worriedly.

"Huh? Of course not, I just startled him." Ivan giggled, tilting his head. Yao sighed softly. "So? Can I take you on a date sometime?" he asked, smiling shyly now. Yao nodded his head, a little stunned by how easily Ivan switched from shy to just being straight out blunt. Truly incredible.

"Yeah, sure. I'm free Saturday night, we can go out then." he said, eating some lettuce. Ivan hummed happily.

"Alright, is there anywhere particular you want to go? And what time should we meet?" he asked, finishing his sandwich off. Yao tapped his chin in thought.

"Take me somewhere you like to eat." Yao replied, brushing some of his hair away from his salad. Ivan nodded, waiting for a time. Yao turned around, so he was facing his desk again. He picked up his notebook, scribbled his address and phone number down and ripped it from the little booklet. Kind of cutely, he pushed himself over to Ivan on his computer chair, and handed him the small piece of paper. "Come get me a five pm, I guess." Yao shrugged, shuffling his chair back over to his desk.

Just as Yao finished his salad, the bell went. This signalled that students were due to return to their lessons, which meant most teachers would be too. Ivan sighed and made his way to the door of Yao's office and Yao stood from his chair.

"I'll see you later Yao! I have to go teach my students about DNA!" he cooed, giving him a little wave and pushing the door open. Yao laughed, leaning against his desk.

"Goodbye, Ivan." he waved back, of course not as enthusiastically as Ivan had. Once he was gone, Yao turned around and picked up the large ruler Ivan had borrowed earlier, and had probably used as his excuse to come visit him in his office. Yao then collected the stuff he would need for his afternoon math lesson, and made his way off to the classroom he would be teaching in.

Yao wouldn't admit for the sake of appearing like an adult, but he was pretty excited about his date with Ivan. It had been a very long time since he had been on a date with someone nice. Ah, thinking about this was making him feel like a teenager again.

Well, the date was something Yao would look forward to. Maybe Yao could teach him some stuff about math that he didn't know already. Or in particular, why some numbers just fit together perfectly.


End file.
